


You're a Bomb, Babe

by masked



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, Human Castiel, M/M, Post-Season/Series 08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-21
Updated: 2014-08-21
Packaged: 2019-09-06 23:39:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16842736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masked/pseuds/masked
Summary: Based on the prompt: Destiel version of a Castle episode, “Still”, where one steps on a bomb and can’t move or they’ll set it off. The other one stays with them and reassures them everything will be okay. Bonus if Sam shows up at some point.





	You're a Bomb, Babe

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Aug 21, 2014 [here](http://hamburgergod.tumblr.com/post/95325513663/prompt-destiel-version-of-a-castle-episode).

The click echoed through the room, and Dean turned to see Cas, frozen in motion. They all stared at his feet as a sense of dread ran down Dean’s spine. Sam was the first to move, running after the demon through the window.

Dean heard Sam’s voice from out the window, yelling at the demon about dropping something. 

“What the fuck was that?” Dean asked.

Cas didn’t answer him, nor did he budge from where he was standing. He only frowned down at his feet, deep in thought.

“Dean!” Sam’s voice jolted Dean from his daze and put him back to his action. He walked by Cas, still standing rigidly at his feet, and looked out the window to find Sam holding a knife against the demon they came here for.

“Whatever you do,” Sam bellowed. “ _Don’t._ _L_ _et. Cas. Move_.”

“What’s going on?”

Sam waved a tiny remote control of some sort around, and Dean’s brain clicked in the pieces together.

 _Fuck_.

* * *

“It’s a thing of beaut,” the demon cackled, his teeth red from the blood. “You know I’ve always thought, why do humans get the Devil’s trap, but we don’t get anything to trap humans? Not really fair, I’d say, you know?”

“Because you’re douchebags, that’s why,” Dean snarled out, pacing to and fro in the room.

“So I got thinking, hey, maybe there _is_ some sort of an equivalent.” He laughed, his head bowed towards his chest. “And there was! Humanity really is beautiful in a tragic sort of way like that, making traps for your own kind without expecting it’ll come to bite you on the ass eventually—”

"What’s the deactivation code?” Sam hissed, waving Ruby’s knife in front of the demon’s nose and the remote control for the bomb in his other hand.

“Aww, what’s wrong, Winchester? Sad that you were tricked by a demon? Ain’t that your life history, though? You’d think you’d get used to it by now.” The demon grinned. “Mommy tricked and dead. Daddy also tricked and dead… Pretty little Jess, dead.”

Sam huffed without amusement, and looked down as his whole body screamed wrath. He looked back up with a cold glare and punched the demon’s face. He got in another blow before Dean held him back. “Sam. _Sam._ Calm the fuck down, man.”

Sam glared, looking like he wanted to stab anyone who got too close to him, but he took a deep breath through his nose and slugged Dean’s hand off his shoulder. Dean gave him a firm pat on the back.

The demon shot them a bloody smile from where he sat, the sight making Dean sick to his stomach. “Abaddon says hi, by the way.”

Dean rubbed his face in distress, containing all his impulse to shove the knife up his throat and hang him up by his innards for Abaddon to find. Fucking demons. At least it seemed like they had the right one, the one that was in constant contact with Abaddon and knew of her whereabouts, but instead, Dean let them _stupidly_ walk into his god damn trap and now Cas was in danger.

Fuck. Knowing where Abaddon wasn’t as big as saving Cas at this point, and no matter how much he wanted to just gank the guy, he couldn’t waste him if it meant having a shot at saving Cas.

“Dean. Sam.”

Dean glanced up to see Cas, standing as still as he could.

“I’m standing on a pressure plate,” Cas calmly stated. “Connected to a detonator.”

Dean quirked a smile without humour. _Yeah, like he needed a reminder_. “Yeah, Cas. Kinda why we’re still here.”

“I’m acting as the only weight holding back the bomb from going off,” he said, with his annoyingly reverent voice. “I shift my weight even a little bit, and we could all die.”

Dean gritted his teeth, knowing exactly where this was going. “We’re not leaving you.”

Cas frowned. “Dean.”

“No.”

Cas’s jaw clenched. “I’m human, Dean,” he said quietly, less reverent now and more equal parts of frustration and distress seeping through his words. “I’ll be taken over by fatigue eventually. I could slip and—”

“Damn it, Cas. We're _not_ leaving you.”

“I’m not risking _your_ lives because of your pig-headed stubbornness—”

“Do I get any say in this?” Sam piqued.

“The only say you’re getting is to tell your _brother_ that both of you are leaving.”

“Oh yeah, you’re _really_ selling the point to me here, Cas, by _not talking to me directly_.”

Sam cast an irritated look at them, and Dean and Cas both glared at Sam for a challenge. He held up his hands in response, shaking his head.

“Cas, he’s got a point,” Sam said. “We can’t just leave you here, man. We’re not going to.”

Cas shot him an exasperated look. “ _Sam_ —”

“I’ll.” Sam cleared his throat as he shot one of those significant looks at Dean ( _talk to him while I work on this guy)_ , and grabbed onto the back of the chair to which the demon was tied to. “I’ll give you guys a minute.”

He dragged the demon tied to the chair into another room of the apartment, leaving Dean and Cas glaring at each other from where they were.

Dean wasn’t an idiot. He knew how these kinda things worked. Leaving Cas alone would leave him with his thoughts and only prompt him to become tired faster. He had to take Cas’ mind off the bomb, or there really was a slim chance of all of them walking out of this alive.

He had to distract Cas somehow.

Cas broke the silence first. “Dean,” he pleaded softly with those stupid puppy eyes of his. “You need to go, _now_. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to hold on for.”

“We’ll get through this,” Dean replied, settling himself down on the island counter.

Cas clenched his jaw. “ _Where_ , exactly, do you get all the confidence from?”

“Sam’ll figure it out.” Dean motioned his head at the closed room, the sound of the demon’s scream muffled by the door. “He’ll get the code out from the demon, we’ll deactivate the bomb, then we’ll exorcise the demon and go home and have a party.”

“A party,” Cas echoed dryly.

“We’ll order some pizza and have a Star Trek marathon. It’ll be a blast.” Dean grinned. “No pun intended, hopefully.”

“Are you honestly willing to put yourself and _Sam_ at risk?”

Dean raised his eyebrows. “Hey, you heard him. He thinks I’m the right one, for once.”

Castiel let out an exasperated sigh. “Dean, there’s nothing you can _do_ here if you stay. _Besides_ getting yourselves killed.”

Dean scoffed. “This could take hours for all we know. Who else is going to keep your sorry ass company? Not that loser,” he said, gesturing at the room door which Sam and the demon were occupying.

“I don't _need_ company, Dean.”

“Whatever you say, buddy.” Dean held his hands up. “I know you actually get really lonely by yourself. I get it.”

Castiel blinked. “What?”

“You know what I mean.” Dean shrugged nonchalantly. “I used to think it was an angel thing back when we first met, but turns out it was just you. I figured that’s why you always stalked me around back in the good ol’ apocalyptic days.”

“I thought I was following God’s order—”

“Hey man, it’s okay.” Dean grinned. “I mean, if I had someone like Uriel as my only companion, I’d want better company too.”

“What are you going _on_ about—” Castiel paused and stared, his lips pressed into a thin line. “I know what you’re doing, Dean, and it’s not going to work.”

“What?” Dean claimed innocently.

“You’re trying to distract me from getting you to leave.” Cas bored at his feet. “I appreciate the sentiment, but please, just—Leave me.”

“But you’ll get _lonely,_ Cas,” Dean said, sticking out his lower lip to a pout. Cas was weirdly stubborn when it came to some things, and Dean knew he’d hit a nerve at the way Cas’ face stilled completely, glaring at him. 

“I do _not_ get _lonely,_ ” Cas hissed. “If anything, _you’re_ the one that always doesn’t let me go for my morning runs with Sam.”

“That’s because I like my bed warm and toasty, okay? Besides, _I’m_ not the one that fucking used to watch me sleep _just because.”_

“I was _protecting_ you from nightmares.”

“Uh huh.”

A silence overtook them. Cas broke it with a long, withdrawn sigh. “Let’s not be childish, Dean. Not now.” His eyes roamed the floor before looking up to meet Dean’s gaze. “Please.” He added.

Dean felt the easily built facade on his face crumble to pieces at the plea. “Son of a bitch,” he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. “You really think this is it.”

Cas’s fingers twitched by his side. “I’m standing on top of a bomb. How can you not?”

“Because I fucking say so,” Dean spat out. “Are you fucking kidding me? It’s only been a week,” he muttered weakly. “It’s been a _week_ , Cas.”

He wondered why it took them both so long to finally stop dancing around each other, and how it was that only when they finally reached out were they torn away from each other like this again. Dean regretted ever having hesitated about Cas for so long. All the time they lost, could’ve had _years_ together, but they didn’t.

They didn’t, and a week of finally, _finally_ being able to touch Cas the way he’d wanted to, and Dean was losing his grasp on Cas all over again.

He was going to leave him, again.

“I watched you, sometimes.”

Dean snapped out of his thoughts at Cas’s voice and his head whipped up to find Cas watching him. “What?”

“At Lisa Braeden’s house,” Cas said, barely audible and his brows fixed in a permanent frown. Dean’s ears focused on Cas’s every word, barely registering any other sounds in the room. “I visited you occasionally. I watched you because I—” He gulped. “I could do nothing else. I wanted to make sure you were happy.”

Dean blinked at the sudden confession. He certainly never thought they’d be mentioning Lisa ever again. “Why you telling me this, Cas?” he hissed, the words coming out in harsher tone than he meant them to be.

Cas startled, his eyes growing wide for a brief second. He gripped his hands into fists and clenched his jaw. “I wish for the same thing now, and always will, Dean. For you and Sam to be happy is one of my greatest wishes.”

Dean’s stomach tingled like there was something crawling inside of him, overwhelmed and unable to wrap his head around how he’d earned the amount of faith and love he’d gained from the individual standing before him. He wasn’t even going to touch on how deserving he was of it. “Cas, will you stop talking like you’re already halfway there—”

“I realize it’s a selfish request,” Cas cut him off. “But I only ask of you and Sam to grant my wish as a final act for me—”

Dean ground his fists into his eyes, seeing bursts of sparks behind them.

“—And to do that, you need to leave this building alive—”

“I prayed to you,” Dean blurted out, if only to shut him up from talking any further and keep himself from hearing such stupid words.

Silence followed after, and Dean opened his eyes to see Cas frozen with his mouth still half-open, his next words never seeing the light.

Dean exhaled slowly through his nose. He was supposed to distract Cas, but this was a can of stowed crap he never wanted to open up. He licked his dried lips, took a deep breath, and continued on despite the way his whole body thrummed from the vulnerability he was displaying.

“After the angels fell, I—” He cleared his throat to get rid of the tremble his voice took on as the memories bit back at him. “I was so fucking _scared_ , man. Until you called me I thought I lost you again, for good that time, and I…”

Cas’s eyes softened. “Dean.”

“I can’t go through that again,” Dean muttered against the lump in his throat. “I can’t, Cas. Not now, not ever. So no, I’m not leaving, and you’re not dying, because we’re going to get through this. Together.”

Dean glared to see if Cas would challenge him, but he did nothing of sort. Instead he bored at Dean in that intense angelic way of his (maybe it was always just Cas) and hushed out, “Thank you, Dean. I… appreciate it.”

Dean twisted his mouth into a wry smile devoid of humour, unable to resist the anger boiling in his veins. Unbelievable.

“No. _No_.” He shook his head. “You don’t get to _thank you, Dean_ me like you get the final say in this, then pretend I can be done with you, alright? We went against Hell and Heaven and saved the whole fucking _world_ and went through Limbo together. You don’t get to—”

“Dean…” Cas trailed off, the same look Dean had received back in Purgatory.

Dean squeezed his eyes shut, and willed away the red he saw in his eyes. He couldn’t believe how far he was going with this, but he’d rather be seen this way than—than— “You are _not_ dying because of a fucking _pressurized bomb_ , Cas. Not after everything we’ve been through,” he gritted out. “Not—Not when I _finally_ —”

An insistent cough caught both Dean and Cas’s attentions. They turned to see Sam standing awkwardly by the door with the remote control and a bloodied knife in hand.

“Did you get the code?” Dean asked Sam’s feet. He wondered if his face was as flushed as it felt.

“Yeah. It’s uh—” Sam chuckled. “Q-U-E-E-N. Guess the guy had a bit of an obsessive side to him.”

“Queen?” Dean echoed.

“Yeah. I think he was referring to Abaddon.”

“Wha— Oh. So what, he was some geeky fanboy who wanted to impress Abaddon with his Winchester catches?”

Sam shrugged. “Seems so.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Dean gestured. “Get on with it.”

“I already did few minutes ago,” Sam replied. “It’s been deactivated, so let’s leave this place already.”

Dean blinked at the statement. From the look on Cas’s face, he was probably thinking the same thing. “Well that’s just anticlimactic.”

Sam snorted. “What, would you rather have the bomb go off?”

“No.” Dean scowled. “But you could’ve told us sooner.”

They both watched as Cas carefully stepped out of the spot, all bracing themselves despite knowing the bomb was no longer an immediate threat. They slumped in relief when nobody was immediately blown up, and hurriedly left the building.

They exorcised the demon, and escorted the formerly possessed to the hospital. They’ll have to deal with the defused bomb later.

* * *

When they arrived at the bunker, Kevin took one good look at them, and said, “Uh, what happened?”

Dean grunted a half-reply, and headed straight to his room, not wanting to stick around when Sam explained what went down. He just wanted to sleep for two thousand years after today.

Cas trotted behind him, making a beeline to the bed. They hadn’t talked on the way back home, with Sam obviously uncomfortable at the passenger seat. Dean shuffled around with the weapons in the duffle bag for a bit, trying to fill the obtrusive silence that settled between them after… well, today. Dean glanced over his shoulder to see Cas sitting as still as he could, as still as he was on top of that bomb like he was tiptoeing around one right now.

With a sigh, Dean gave up on sorting out his guns and sank into the bed beside Cas, who stiffened at his presence.

Dean’s family always had a history of wiling to throw their life away for the sake of others without one thought for themselves. Cas was, and has been, family for a while and he definitely, needlessly took on that tradition. Dean had hoped they left that behind, thought he was getting better after Cas moved in with them after the angels fell.

“You know,” Dean said, his voice barely a hush over the low hum in the bunker. “When humans get stuck with a bomb, they usually try to find ways to live.”

“I see,” Cas replied, equally as quiet.

“Cas, what you tried to pull back there…” Dean licked his lips in hesitation. “That really wasn’t cool, man.”

“What was I supposed to do?” Cas snapped, meeting Dean’s steady gaze with his fiery ones. “Beg you to stay with me? To die with me? That would’ve been pointless.”

“Yeah.” Dean swallowed. “Yeah, it would’ve been pointless, but I wish you would’ve… I don’t know, man.”

He wished for what, for Cas to be more dependent on him? That was an impossible thing to ask for, and they both knew it. He knew he should be angry at Cas for not even wanting to find out a solution to the life-or-death problem. He didn’t have the strength to be angry right now. He didn’t even know if he had any right to be.

Dean sighed. “I wish you’d be a little more selfish.”

“Dean—”

“You didn’t even _try_. You just fucking gave up, like you didn’t even _want_ to live.”

Cas turned away, his jaw clenched shut.

“You, and Sam, and Kevin are all I got,” Dean continued, almost begging at this point. “I can’t… I can’t lose you _again._ I need you to value your life a little more.”

“It was either me, or you and Sam,” Cas muttered, still not looking at Dean.

“I’m being unreasonable with that bit. I get it. But what you said back there,” Dean played with Cas’s fingers, idly sliding their hands together. Cas stared at their hands. “About you wanting me and Sam to be happy. These things usually run both ways, you know.”

Cas’s gaze flickered, finally settling on Dean, finally looking at him again. “Meaning?”

“Meaning, I want you to be happy too,” Dean said, holding up their entwined hands. “And since you need me alive for you to be happy, and I need you to stay alive for me to be happy, it’s kinda required for you to stay alive in order to keep me happy.” He gently kissed the back of Cas’s hand. “Okay?”

Cas narrowed his eyes and squeezed Dean’s hand. “I believe _that_ goes both ways as well.”

Dean threw his hands in the air. “So you’re saying neither of us can die, ever.”

“Yes. I suppose so.”

Dean groaned in frustration and buried his face against Cas’s collarbone and wrapped his arms around him, slumping on top of him as he pushed both of them onto the bed. Cas let out a grunt as he hit the bed, and tucked his chin against Dean’s shoulder. They stayed that way for a bit, and Dean focused on the way Cas’s heartbeat steadily beat against Dean’s chest.

“You fucking asshole,” Dean murmured. “Don’t ever pull shit like that again.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.” Cas’s arms squeezed Dean a little tighter. He rubbed Dean’s back up and down his touch gentle and soothing. “I’m sorry I scared you,” he muttered.

He huffed and hid his face further, hating the way he was being treated like some delicate teenager when _Cas_ was the one who almost had a death experience ( _again_ ), but fuck it if it wasn’t true. How Cas talked about dying so _easily_ , the way he just kept on going about it like he was about to disappear into thin air anytime now, it was all fucking terrifying. Dean should just, what? Deal with it?

Fuck no.

Dean knew they had to talk about it. How he had to reassure Cas over and over again that Cas tried, he _tried_ god fucking damn it, and sometimes in life, trying just wasn’t enough. As if Dean didn’t learn that by now, as if _Cas_ didn’t learn that by now, after everything they’d been through. He knew he had to say something, _anything_ to Cas about how the angels falling was purely Metatron (that fucking dick), comfort him and reassure him again and again that they’ll figure this shit out.

Cas shifted underneath him so he wasn’t completely crushed by Dean’s weight, and Dean held on tight for both of them in case he flapped away from him again, just like the times before this.

Later. Later he’ll tell him somehow. For now…

“’m tired,” Dean muttered, his arms still loosely looped around Cas. “Stay with me.”

He felt Cas’s body relax in his grasp. “All right,” Cas hushed.

Dean let themselves pause for a bit, and rested. A little breather couldn’t hurt, and right now, that was exactly what both of them needed.

With their bodies slotted against each other, Dean and Cas rested for now. 


End file.
